Chapter One

Something Is Wrong

Jack smiled as he watched a young boy catch a fish and show it to his grandfather. It was summer time in the world and that meant very little snow and frost so he had a very limited amount of land that he could travel to and have some fun. Currently he was in Alaska, a place he loved but didn't go to often because of the low population. But he came around every once in awhile to play with the kids up there.

"And now for some fun," said Jack as he held his hand out. The fish the boy caught had slipped out of his hands and fell towards the hole where they were fishing; it was halfway in the water when Jack froze the water over. In Alaska water froze pretty fast but not that fast. The grandfather was shocked and amazed while the grandson kept laughing at the fish as it wiggled it's tail that was sticking up in the air. The grandfather leaned forward to inspect the water when Jack thawed it and the fish fully fell back in, but not without a splash of the tail right at the grandfather's face with made the boy laugh louder and Jack to chuckle.

Just then some snowmobiles drove up of the grandson's cousins and Jack smiled. He made an icy trail right by the snowmobiles and as the cousins got off they pushed on the vehicles and they went sliding down the frozen landscape.

"Hey!" they shouted and ran after then. Jack continued to move the snowmobiles around while the grandfather and grandson watched with amusement on their faces.

Jack jumped around and was moving farther away from pair fishing while still controlling the snowmobiles and icy with the cousins chasing them. He stuck his staff into the ice and perched atop it as he made the mobiles do a few donuts. That's when he heard it.

It was a very large crack, really like nothing he had heard before. He stopped making and icy path so the snowmobiles stopped moving and the cousins caught up to them only to stop as well when they heard more cracks. Jack looked down to where his staff was digging into the ice and there were large cracks leading away from that spot and they were still forming. He jumped down and pulled his staff out only to cause the cracks to go quicker. The cousins looked at each other in fear before jumping on their snowmobiles and heading back to their grandfather and cousin who had heard the crack as well and were standing up in alert.

"This isn't good," said Jack as he jumped back and watched the crack grow and grow till he couldn't see it anymore. Then he heard a larger crack and the one by his feet seemed as if it was separating and it grew bigger. He turned and saw the grandfather and grandson get on their own snowmobiles and head off back to their town and away from the crack.

"This really isn't good," said Jack gripping his staff and looking, "I have to tell the others." He jumped into the air and allowed the wind to catch him as he took off towards North's workshop.

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"What do you mean there is a lack of wood? I can't make wooden blocks, and horses, and castles without wood!" shouted North in anger at the messenger yeti. The yeti responded with a very confused face and then showed North his clipboard of supplies. "Well I don't understand this, we always have enough wood." The yeti shrugged in response. At that point another yeti walked up with Jack following behind him.

"Jack! Good to see you! Though you came at a not opportune moment. Today means it is exactly six months till Christmas and things are picking up and now I've run out of wood for all the toys!" said North as he handed the clipboard back to the yeti and started walking off with Jack in tow.

"I have to tell you something important that happened," said Jack not even bothering to look around the workshop as usual because he had crucial news to report.

"Then get on with it," said North while he inspected a racing car to make sure the wheels rolled.

"North, would you pay attention please," said Jack trying to get the busy Guardian's attention, "how about we go to your study real quick."

"Fine," said North as he put the car back and rolled it towards a yeti painting them. He then turned and headed to his study with Jack still in tow. Jack closed the door behind him once they were inside and North grabbed a plate of cookies and put one in his mouth. He held the plate out towards Jack who shook his head 'no'. "So what is important news, Jack, that pulls me from my work at this time of year?"

"I was just in Alaska and I was having a bit of fun with kids up there when I jammed my staff into the ice and it cracked. And it wasn't just a little crack, this crack went on and on till I couldn't see the end and all of sudden the ice shifted and the crack kept getting bigger and bigger till it was a huge gap in the ground easy enough for anyone to fall in. You and I have been around ice around long enough to know that it doesn't just do that, especially not at those temperatures up in Northern Alaska."

"That is strange."

"I wouldn't bring it to your attention unless I felt it was important," said Jack, worried etched on his face.

"Yes, yes, I see. I have noticed a few odd things lately around the world as well."

"So what are we going to do, what can we do?" asked Jack.

"I'll call the other guardians!" said North and he took off out of his study. Jack took a step towards the open doors but backtracked and took a cookie before following North once more.

It was only a few moments later when the rest of the guardians had assembled. They were gathered in the globe room that shone brightly with many believing children.

"Tooth are you…sweating?" asked Jack as he glanced at her as she instructed her fairies one last time before sending them off and turning to Jack.

"Yes, the temperatures at the tooth palace have gone up a lot. Too much, and my pond has started to dry up as well."

"How is that possible?" asked Jack as he put a hand on her shoulder and cooled her down.

"Ah, thank you so much. I don't know, it hasn't ever happened before," she said.

"Well who controls the temperature?" asked Bunnymund walking over.

"It has the natural temperature of the area we are located in. Which I picked specifically because it never got too cold or too hot," said Tooth. Jack took his hand off her shoulder and looked up at North as he walked over.

"Tooth's temperature increasing, large rifts created in ice in Alaska, I am running out of wood for toys, I fear there is only one person responsible for all of this," said North looking to Sandy. The others turned to look at their friend who had the image of the Earth spinning around his head. It then morphed to form the face of a spirit they all knew, a spirit everyone knew, a spirit as old as time itself, even older than the Moon.

"Mother Nature." Said the other guardians in unison.

"Isn't it her job to maintain a balance and provide for everyone? The ice melting, the temperatures heating up, and running out of trees for wood isn't maintaining any kind of balance," said Bunnymund.

"Unless something is wrong," said Tooth.

"What could be wrong?" asked North.

"Anything, but we won't know unless we see her," said Jack.

"Where is she now?" asked Bunny.

"It is summer so she should be in at her summer home," said North and they looked towards Sandy who then formed the image of a large redwood tree.

"Wow that is a tall tree," said Bunny as they stood at the base of the tallest Redwood tree in the world. They all looked up at it and then at each other.

"Last one to the top is a rotten tooth!" shouted Tooth as she took off upward. Jack quickly behind her.

"The saying is 'rotten egg'," said Bunnymund as he crossed his arms and thumped the ground before falling in the hole. North slapped the reigns of his sleigh and he went speeding off while Sandy floated on up and passed North who was the last to arrive. He stepped off his sleigh and sent it back down as they now stood on the porch of a very elegant looking tree house.

"Should we knock?" asked Jack looking at the others.

"Go in," came a voice to their left. They turned and saw that there was an elderly face in the trunk of the tree next to them. It was turned towards them and was gripping the deck of the porch in one hand, "she has been expecting you, Guardians."

"That's a tree talking right?" asked Bunnymund.

"You have giant stone eggs that move and you think an ent is strange?" asked Jack.

"How do you know what an ent is?" asked Bunny.

"I read," said Jack.

"Boys, no arguing," said Tooth stepping between them. The ent then reached forward and the opened the front door for them to enter in. They took one last look at the tree before heading into the house. They were in what looked to be a living room and saw many woodland creatures scurrying about cleaning and whatnot. They stopped working to stare at the guardians before they rushed forward and started pulling and pushing them to a door on the right.

"I think they want us to go in here," said North opening the door.

"You think?" asked Bunnymund as he glanced at the pair of rabbits pushing his feet. Tooth was playing with the birds around her while Sandy was riding atop a bed of moles.

They went through the doorway and North closed the door behind him while Tooth gasped. They all saw that they were in a bedroom now. There was a weeping willow in the corner and it was forming a canopy around a bed that had a blanket of flowers on it. The willow's branches were tied to the side and they could see Mother Nature laying in the bed looking a lot worse for wear.

Normally she would have radiant chestnut coloured hair and bright green eyes, her skin just sun kissed and a healthy glow. Yet here she laid with sunken eyes and pale sickly skin, her eyes were dull and her hair was greasy, something was terribly wrong.

"Nature!" exclaimed Tooth as she rushed forward and kneeled next to the bed. Nature looked at Tooth and gave a weak smile.

"Hello, Tooth, it has been quite," she was interrupted by coughing, her voice was very wheezy as well, "a while." She finally finished. The other guardians walked over and looked down with saddened expressions at the ill spirit.

"I don't understand. What happened?" asked North.

"I've been…battling this illness for decades now," she struggled to get out, "it has finally caught up with me."

"Why now, though, why all of a sudden?" asked Bunny.

"Because of that," said Mother Nature pointing to a small table with a newspaper on it. Sandy picked it up and quickly read the front page before handing it to North with a shocked expression.

"Oil Spill in Gulf," read North and he looked at Nature, "but there have been oil spills before and you've recovered."

"But it takes its toll on you, and everything just builds up all at once, right?" asked Tooth. Nature nodded.

"So this is the reason why the temperatures at the Tooth Palace have gone way up, why the ice in Alaska is melting, and the tress are running out?" asked Bunnymund looking at the newspaper. Nature nodded before bringing her hand up to her face and wiping away black thick tears. She held her hand out as the guardian's looked at her tears confused.

"It's oil, there is too much in the oceans now that I'm crying it instead of salt water," she said wiping it off on a nearby rag that was already stained with oil spots. The guardians gave her a moment to herself to dry her tears and to discuss what was to be done.

"We have to help," said Jack as they leaned into a huddle.

"But how, we don't know what is causing it," said Tooth slightly panicked.

"Well if we find out what is causing it then maybe we can figure out how to cure her," said Jack.

"The world won't survive long if she is in such a bad condition and is getting worse," said Bunnymund and Sandy shook his head sadly.

"All right, we help!" exclaimed North turning to look at Nature who was moving slowly to sit propped up on her pillows and Tooth fluttered over to her and pulled her blankets up to rest on Nature as much as possible. The others moved over and gathered around her once more.

"We just need to know what is causing this illness," said Jack gently. Nature looked at him and her face was beginning to harden as she thought about it.

"Humans," she replied and clenched her teeth in anger.

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A/n: I recently discovered the wonderful gem that is the film Rise of the Guardians and I fell in love. The story, the animation, the characters, and definitely the music. Naturally two things happened when I fell in love with this new movie: I wanted to make a costume from it (so Tooth is underway) and a fanfiction popped into my head.

I wrote this with not as much romance as I usually write because in my head I saw this as a sequel so I kept is kid friendly, except maybe a little heavy on the science and history but I did try to keep it everything as simple as possible.

Thank you for reading.

-Charlotte